Photo: Chase Gentry | YouTube
This 1972 Ford F-100 spent over 20 long years parked in its owner’s backyard after many years and miles on the road, all with the same family. They finally decided to list it for sale. The one who took it home found the truck on Facebook Marketplace and drove 11 hours to check it out, not sure if he would go back home with the F-100.
Off-road enthusiast Chase Gentry was scrolling on Facebook Marketplace in search of a truck when he laid his eyes on a 1972 Ford F-100 Sport Custom and felt that it was the one. The seller was asking $3,000 to let it go. He instantly messaged the owner to ask if he could do $2,000. “Yes, sure can,” he immediately replied.
So Chase packed his things, took his Ford F-150 Raptor R and his trailer, and started his 760-mile, 11-hour-long trip from his home in Harlingen to Amarillo, Texas, not knowing what he would find. He considered the worst-case scenarios: a rusted frame, the owner changing his mind. It can’t possibly be easy to let go of a truck that has been with the family for 54 years. What else could go wrong?
The current owner of the truck, Linda, welcomes him in the driveway and tells him it was the truck on which she learned how to drive. Actually, she was too small to reach the pedals, so Grandpa sat her on his lap, controlling the pedals, while steering was all she did.
Photo: Chase Gentry | YouTube
Grandpa was actually the original owner of the Ford F-100. He drove it off the showroom floor in 1972, and it was his workhorse, but also his pride and joy up until he handed it out to Linda’s father. But then, life happened, and her father parked it in the backyard in 2005 and never touched it again.
That is exactly where Chase finds it, covered in dust and grime, with the interior in black and white, mirroring over two decades of neglect. He pops the hood to see what is underneath. The engine bay must have been a playground for the mice that chewed hoses and wires and everything they found edible by mouse standards.
Linda has no idea what engine powers the truck, but takes a wild guess at a 360-cubic-inch V8. Back in the day, the lineup started with the base 240 CID inline-six with 121 horsepower (123 metric horsepower), while the 390-cubic-inch V8 sat at the top of the lineup with 201 horsepower (204 metric horsepower). The 360 was the second most powerful variant available, pushing out 196 horsepower (199 metric horsepower).
Luckily, the $2,000 deal is still standing, so Chase is buying it and naming it Sheila, after their lab that has recently passed away. He has been dreaming of owning a yellow F-100 for years. The 1972 model year was the sixth and final year of the fifth-generation Ford F-Series.
Photo: Chase Gentry | YouTube
Famously known by truck enthusiasts as the Bumpside generation due to the distinct, convex body crease running along the sides, the 1972 model was a transition year right before Ford debuted the Dentside sixth-generation model in 1973.
Chase tows his all-new old F-100 out of its entrapment with the help of his F-150 Raptor R and loads it onto the trailer, well aware that the truck is not just one more project but a vehicle with a story, which spent half a century with the same family. Chase grinned with joy all the way home, ten hours long.
$2,000, 22 hours on the road, and a wash later, the new owner is surprised to see the truck is in better condition than he expected. The yellow paint is immaculate, despite the fact that the truck spent 20 years parked in the sun. But to get it looking this clean, he had to deal with mouse nests. It took him four days to clean it up.
The original bench seat has the upholstery cut open, so he will have to solve that issue, too. Everything is original in and out, just like it was back in 1972. He will also have to come up with a solution to the surface rust in the load bed. Despite all of the issues the 54-year-old Ford came with, it was too good of a deal to turn around and walk away.
Photo: Chase Gentry | YouTube
Chase paid less than what buyers used to pay for a new truck in 1972, when it started at $2,521. Adjusted for inflation, that original base price translates to roughly $18,800 in today’s money. There is no truck on the American market retailing that low nowadays. Even the Slate Truck is about $6,000 more expensive.
From this moment on, Chase has two options: either fully restore it or keep the patina and work on the internals to make it run and drive properly. He loves the patina, so the original paint is staying. But he wouldn’t really mind an engine swap and 500 horsepower.
